The subject of the present invention is an elevator installation with an elevator car which moves in an elevator shaft with shaft doors, wherein the elevator car has at least one car apron and a device for reducing noises, which noises arise as a consequence of an air flow occurring between a shaft wall and the car apron, and the device is present in the region of the car apron.
Car aprons are plate-shaped elements which in the region of the front, which is at the door side, of an elevator car typically extend approximately a meter of length from the underside of the elevator car downwardly or from the upper side of the elevator car upwardly. They serve on the one hand for protection of the toes of passengers against being caught between car door threshold and shaft door threshold if the elevator car has not stopped exactly at floor height. On the other hand, they prevent passengers from falling down in the elevator shaft when they have to be evacuated from a jammed elevator car while the car threshold is located substantially above the building floor. In the case of high-speed elevator cars the car aprons also have the task of producing a course, which is as laminar as possible, of the air flow between the front of the elevator car and the wall of the elevator shaft at the shaft door side.
Such a device is shown in Japanese patent document JP 2001316060. The wind noises arising in the region of a lower or an upper car apron of an elevator car as a consequence of the air flow are attenuated by a sound transmitter. This is installed in the region of a car apron on the side thereof remote from the opposite shaft wall and generates sound waves which counteract, by sound waves of opposite phase, the sound waves of the wind noises detected by a sensor.
The device disclosed in JP 2001316060 has high costs for provision of the requisite components. Moreover, installation thereof is complicated and requires special knowledge by the installation and maintenance personnel. Moreover, such a complex electronic/acoustic system always is a source of failure.